It’s our Tradition at Trinity, Sarasota to offer couples the opportunity to renew their wedding vows the Sunday before Saint Valentine’s Day. Click Here for the liturgy we use.
Testimonies of the love between a couple, between friends, between a mother and son.
Joy Voyles quote: Chris is trying to keep under control while caring for his mom. It has been very hard on him. What a beautiful creation God blessed Nancy with. Though the time has been stressful for both Chris and Nancy, it also has allowed one on one time for them to share, pray and bond even more… maybe that was a blessing in disguise if you can call “pain” a blessing. Although, as I think about it… the pain of childbirth is a blessing… you reap the reward of a beautiful newborn in your arms and heart to love forever… Could it be the pain of leaving your body and moving into the arms of our Lord is a blessing of love to last thru eternity…
Song of Solomon 8:5-7 5 Who is that coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?
1. Coming up from the wilderness
Wilderness of the time before we know Christ
We wander in the desolation. Then we accept God’s love, are buried with Christ in baptism and we come up out of the wilderness. We are raised to new life.
Wilderness of an awful time in our lives
dry, barren, desolate, deadly. Christ is will us. Christ helps us to come through and come up out of the wilderness. We are raised to new life.
Wilderness of life this side of heaven.
Like the Hebrew slaves in Exodus, we cross the wilderness of this life to the promised land of heaven. We come up, raised to new life, eternal life
2. Leaning upon our Beloved Christ
Why do you lean?
For strength because you are weak
For support because the journey is long
For steadying because the footing is unsure
Because you just want to be near the one you love, your beloved
Charles Spurgeon Quote, Adapted
Beloved, there is no part of the pilgrimage of a saint in which we can afford to walk in any other way but in the way of leaning. … at the first, and at the last, still leaning, still leaning upon Christ Jesus; ay, and leaning more and more heavily upon Christ the older we grow.
Under the apple tree, I awakened you. There your mother was in labor with you; there she who bore you was in labor.
Consider the details, the specifics, the intimacy with which Jesus knows us
Knows us within our mother’s wombs
Knows us at our first breath
Knows the hairs on our head, our every experience, the deepest longing of our heart
6 Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm;
A Seal
Makes an impression
Ensures something is real, authentic
Reminds us the reality is binding. There’s a permanence to commitment, a sense of security
Jesus desires to be the seal on heart (call to be) and the seal on arm (call to do)
for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
1. What makes death strong?
Death comes for all people, just as Christ comes for all people
There’s a permanence to death. Total. Irreversible. The same is true for Christ’s love which is even stronger than death. Christ’s love overcomes sin and death and the grave with sacrificial love and resurrection love.
2. The Passion of Christ’s Love
The unrelenting longing and desire of Christ is to have an intimate, saving relationship with us
In his passion (healthy jealousy) Jesus doesn’t want to see anything come between us and our relationship with him.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.
Christ’s passionate love is compared to fire
Fire has great power
It is alive
It is useful
It is unchanging, unquenchable, unstoppable
Nothing can put it out. Not even wave after wave of trouble. Not night after night of darkness. Not even death.
If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned.
All people are made in the image of God. In this God gives us the ability to love and be loved. Love cannot be bought or sold; it is not a piece of merchandise. Only objects can be bought and sold. Love is not an object. People are never objects.
This is why human trafficking, pornography, and prostitution are scorned. They are outside God’s will because love and people are objectified.
Love is of infinite value. We cannot buy it or earn it.
Love of God in Christ Jesus
Saves us from the wilderness
Something we lean upon always
More intimate than our first breath
Real, Authentic, Makes a lasting impression
Strong, Fierce, Passionate
Unchanging, Unquenchable, Unstoppable
Of Infinite Value
Offered to you as a gift
Accept the gift of God’s love
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I’m excited to now offer mp3’s of my Sunday messages. A huge thank you to Sean and my brothers and sisters at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota for all their help in making this possible. If you’re ever in Sarasota, please drop by for worship Sundays at 9am or 10:30am, or join us live on our Facebook page at 9am Sundays, or drop by during the week for a chat or small group. You and those you love are always welcome.
Divine One, you know us and call us by name.
You search for us, drawing us to your breast when we are strangers and aliens.
We are each and all your beloved.
You name us friend. You name us family.
We wonder and marvel to have as our Lover the Creator and Master of all that exists.
Our Beloved is Love itself.
You know us so well, and love us all the more.
Every longing, every breath, the number of hairs on our head.
We run into your embrace, overwhelmed by your intimacy and grace.
Sermon Series – Jacob, Punk to Patriarch Jacob’s journey to faith and accepting his place in God’s plan is full of schemes, betrayal, and family dysfunction. Yet, in the midst of the mess, God remains steadfast- offering relationship, provision, purpose, and new life. In Jacob’s story, we see our own mess and God’s saving grace for us as well.
Something is going on in Jacob’s life. He’s learning to love and sacrifice for another person. He’s gaining an honest work ethic. When he’s deceived by Laban he takes the high road, maybe for the first time in his life. He could have killed Laban, he could have rejected Leah, he could have run home taking Rachel with him. Instead, Jacob stays husband to Leah (who’s been cruelly used by Laban) and works another seven years for Rachel. Could Jacob be connecting his pain to the pain he caused his brother and father? Could he be learning empathy as well as love? Could it be, when Jacob awoke from his dream, God also awakened him from the selfish, manipulative nightmare of his early years? – Lisa Degrenia <><
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I’m excited to now offer mp3’s of my Sunday messages. A huge thank you to Leon and my brothers and sisters at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota for all their help in making this possible. If you’re ever in Sarasota, please drop by for worship Sundays at 9am or 10:30am, or drop by during the week for a chat or small group. You and those you love are always welcome.
Sermon Series: What’s Love Got To Do With It? What’s love got to do with it? Everything! It’s the who, what, when, where, how and why of our words and actions as follower of Jesus Christ.
Cornerstone Scripture for the Series: 1 John 4:15-17
God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
It’s easy to do good from a distance, but that’s not what we do. Yes we give, but we also welcome, we take care, we visit. We love with skin in the game because that’s what God does for us in Jesus Christ. In this loving, we experience a full circle moment. We accept the gift of God’s love, we share that love, in that sharing we are loving God. – Lisa Degrenia <><
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I’m excited to now offer mp3’s of my Sunday messages. A huge thank you to Leon and my brothers and sisters at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota for all their help in making this possible. If you’re ever in Sarasota, please drop by for worship Sundays at 9am or 10:30am, or drop by during the week for a chat or small group. You and those you love are always welcome.
Sermon Series: What’s Love Got To Do With It? What’s love got to do with it? Everything! It’s the who, what, when, where, how and why of our words and actions as follower of Jesus Christ.
Cornerstone Scripture for the Series: 1 John 4:15-17
God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
Love = Agape
Sacrificial, Unconditional, Makes the first move
Love is a choice tied to an action
Not so much an emotion but a motivation
Click Here to see the video of a child hitting then hugging a pinata mentioned in the sermon.
Love is a Verb- Patient and Kind Love is patient – enduring, persevering, long suffering (verse 4)
Patience is not irritable or resentful (verse 5)
Patience bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. (verses 7-8)
Love is kind– caring, generous, thoughtful, compassionate (verse 4)
Kindness is not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude (verses 4-5)
Kindness does not insist on its own way (verse 5)
Kindness does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth (verse 6)
Harper describing her picture of the monster
“So, like, this is a monster and he is mad because everyone is being mean to him.
But then I come to him and tell him, ‘You don’t have to be mad, just be nice to them’ and then I hold his hand and then he was happy. I’d like to take him home to be happy so he’s not alone.”
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I’m excited to now offer mp3’s of my Sunday messages. A huge thank you to Leon and my brothers and sisters at Trinity United Methodist Church, Sarasota for all their help in making this possible. If you’re ever in Sarasota, please drop by for worship Sundays at 9am or 10:30am, or drop by during the week for a chat or small group. You and those you love are always welcome.
Happy Trinity Sunday! – Lisa <><
